A Black Friday closes the week of European stock exchanges, again overwhelmed by the sell-off on banks due to fears relating, this time, to Deutsche Bank (-6,75%). The eighth had opened with a great recovery, thanks to the rapid way out of the crisis Credit Suisse (-5,32%) with the sale to Ubs (-3,74%), but investors' nerves are still on edge over the Swiss bank's CHF16bn subordinated bond write-off and yesterday two smaller German banks followed suit. The nervousness then focused on Deutsche Bank due to the soaring prices of the German bank's five-year credit default swap (a sort of insurance against insolvency), triggering a crisis of confidence in the sector, despite the reassurances of the authorities.
The climate is also disturbed a Wall Street, down fractionally in the American morning, with some timid attempts to go green. Stocks of lenders are losing, while investors are turning to lucrative government bonds. It doesn't help that Bank of America says it is watching out for the "next bubble," which has already emerged with the regional bank crisis, and recommends selling stocks instead of buying them.
Europe in deep red; banks in focus
Business Square, fully invested by this wave of pessimism, suffers more than others due to the specific weight of the financial sector on the main list and yields 2,23%, retreating to 25.892 basis points. Between ups and downs, the weekly balance of the Ftse Mib is almost in parity (-0,1%).
In the rest of Europe Madrid loses 1,98%, Frankfurt -1,66% Paris -1,74% Amsterdam -1,58% London -1,25% Zurich -0,75%.
The European index of banks in the euro area falls by 2,27%. Among the worst titles, with DB, there are the German Commerzbank -5,48%, the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank -8,33%, the French sucks -6,13%.
Investors were unnerved by Bloomberg writing that Credit Suisse and UBS are among the banks under scrutiny as part of an investigation by the US Department of Justice into whether their employees helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions.
During the day, many European authorities tried to restore some confidence on the continental markets. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz he said there is no comparison between Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse and "there is no reason to worry, the bank is very profitable" and "has radically modernized its business model".
The president of the ECB Christine Lagarde he underlined that European banks are solid and the central institution is ready to intervene, if needed. The French president Emmanuel Macron he clarified: "The foundations of European banks are very solid" and "we need to distinguish the speculative behavior of some players, who seek to make money in the short term, from the foundations placed under solid supervision".
The indications of the Euro Summit to the finance ministers are similar.
PMI: Euroland economy holds up, but manufacturing suffers
The PMI indices of the euro area have faded into the background today, even if they show an economy that resists thanks to the services sector, even if manufacturing suffers.
March's preliminary composite PMI came in at 54,1 points, up from 52 in February and above expectations at 52 points. The services sector index rose to 55,6 points from 52,7 the previous month (52,6 points consensus). Manufacturing fell to 47,1 points, from 48,5 points previously (49 points consensus). Remember that the boundary between expansion and contraction is 50.
The US SMEs also showed a slight improvement. In March that of services rose to 53,8 points from 50,6 in February, that of manufacturing was equal to 49,3 points, up from 47,3 in the previous month, but still below the watershed threshold between an contracting or expanding.
In this context the index of dollar raise your head andeuro traded down around 1,076.
Il Petroleum shows little confidence in the future and moves in the red, with the futures of Brent (74,82 dollars a barrel) and Wti (68,33 dollars a barrel). Gold is in the window, with spot gold worth over 1988 dollars an ounce (-0,3%).
Drop the price of gas in Amsterdam: 41,5 euros per MWh (-3,9%).
In Piazza Affari we look at health
The list of stocks with the highest capitalization that are saved today in Piazza Affari is really short and includes two health stocks: Diasorin +3,6% and Recordati +0,34%. All the rest are discounts.
Banks are among the worst and it starts from Bpm bank -4,14% Bper -4,04% Monte Paschi Bank -3,26%. Black day also for the big names, Unicredit -4,05% and Understanding -2,41%.
The session is one to forget for industry stocks: Iveco recorded the greatest drop of the day, -5,01%.
Heavy losses for stm -3,78% Tenaris -3,21% nexi -3,06% Interpump -3,27% Leonardo -3,48%.
Purchases on euro zone government bonds, spread slightly up
The purchases today converged on eurozone government bonds, which are seeing declining yields. That of the 10-year BTP at the end is indicated at +3,9% (from 3,95% yesterday), while that of the Bund with the same duration at +2,08% (from 2,16%), for one spread expanding to 183 basis points (+1,26%).
Indifferent to everything that is happening in the banking sector and on the markets, the president of the Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, reiterated that the ECB must continue to adjust interest rates higher and accelerate the reduction of its balance sheet, as rapid wage growth puts upward pressure on an already high inflation rate.
